Why Is Amazon Called Amazon? [Complete Information]

Why Is Amazon Called Amazon

Jeff Bezos who has been entitled as the world’s richest man created a history of no regrets. In 1994, he quit his job with a mindset that it’s better to fail than carrying the regret of doing nothing. Unlike others, none other accompanied him but his wife. From quitting the job to naming the company, why is Amazon called Amazon is an inspirational story.

Why Is It Called Amazon?

Bezos accompanied by his wife was looking for a name. But this didn’t get straight. Initially, in 1994 Bezos founded the company in Washington as ‘Cadabra’. His lawyer misheard the name and called it ‘cadaver’. Since this happened, he decides to change it to something that sounds better and easily memorable.

This time he chooses ‘rentless.com’ and purchased a domain, which he owns even now. However, it was also in his drop list after his friends told him how weird it sounds.

Finally, Jeff and his wife went through a dictionary and came across the word Amazon which meant “exotic and different”. This sounds fascinating to them and became their final choice.

Every time Amazon came up with taglines that depicted its closeness with its customers. The logo also depicts its offerings.

Amazon’s mission statement says it all:

‘Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.’

Well, it has nearly everything you want. From Barak Obama’s nail to daily necessities items, it has it all at one click away.

Talking about one click, there is an interesting fact you would like to know. In 1999, Amazon trademarked and patented one-click purchasing. In the same year, Barnes & Noble filed a lawsuit against the patent; which was then settled in 2002.

Jeff Bezos- The creator of Amazon

Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, in Mexico. The surname ‘Bezos’ belongs to his second father whom his mother married when Jeff was four years old. Since childhood, he was a brilliant student. Math equations were like a game to him.

He had a keen interest in science and technology. Jeff did his graduation from Princeton University. Seeing his talent, he was offered jobs at companies like Intel, Bell Labs, and many others. However, he joined a startup company and later worked with D.E. Shaw & Co and became senior vice-president at the young age of 30.

But he was not satisfied with just being employed. For him, it was better to fail than regret. That’s why he made up his mind and left his job to found his own company.

Logo

If you see the initial logos, you won’t like them much. Nevertheless, with time it evolved and became straightforward. At present, the logo represents the name ‘AMAZON’ that includes an arrow targeting the alphabet A to Z. it meant that the company provides products nearly everything named A to Z.

What Was The Motto Of Amazon At First?

While he named the company Amazon; he noted that the Amazon River is the largest river in the world. Taking reference to this, he decided to make the store world’s biggest bookstore. So, at first, Amazon meant for an online bookstore. However, it wasn’t the sole reason.

Secondly, he read a report about the future of the internet that showed growth of 2300% in web commerce. After this, he listed 20 products of which he narrowed down five for online business. They were; compact discs, computer hardware, computer software, videos, and books.

To start an online business, he cut it down and made books his final choice. Further, there were two reasons to go with books. One that there has been a huge demand for literature and the other was all sorts of varieties were available at a low price. It was a profitable idea so he continued.

The Journey So Far!

1994 to 1999- the initial years

1994 – the company was founded in a garage in Bellevue, Washington. In the same year; the name of the company was changed.

1995 – Bezos started with the online bookstore making it available on the internet to 50 states and over 45 countries.

1997 – Barnes & Noble filed a lawsuit against Amazon that later got settled.

1998 – This time, Walmart filed a lawsuit against it claiming that Amazon used its strategy to hire former Walmart executives. Eventually, it also got settled and in the same year, it announced to expand its business. Thereby, he acquired the Internet Movie Database.

1999 – Bezos was named the Person of the Year in Time magazine recognizing his success in the online market.

Amazon In 1999

The 2000s – first ever rising step

Undoubtedly, the arrow on its logo still makes you smile! In 2000, Amazon features a new logo in which an arrow was shown waving from A to Z. This also meant the availability of products named A to Z.

As per the sources, the company didn’t expect any profit for at least 5 years. But the results were different. The company received its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001 valued above $1 billion. This was a rising step in the success of the company.

2010 to present

The number of the employees can be count as the growth of a company. Talking about Amazon, in the year 2011, the number of employees was 30,000 which then increase six times by the end of 2016.

Meanwhile, in 2014, Amazon launched Fire Phone to deliver media streaming. Unfortunately, the venture failed with a loss of $170 million.

But this didn’t barrier its speed and Bezos started acquiring companies year by year. Some of them are quite popular now like Twitch and Good Reads.

One of the successful add-ins to the company is Amazon Alexa (launched in 2013) and Amazon Prime (launched in 2016). While Alexa offers cloud-based services as a smart speaker, Prime offers movies from different countries and languages. Initially, the subscription price was quite high but went down to an ordinary user’s pocket.

Conclusion

Ever since Amazon came into online marketing, shopping became hassle-free. Although other websites offer the same service, yet it stands still. Amazon not only benefits customers but also the producers and small businesses and start-ups by letting them own a place in internet marketing.

Nonetheless, the slogan “Work Hard, Have Fun, Make history” is the reason why is Amazon called Amazon.